I hear Locke shifting, so I look at him. He gets out of the bed.
"I see you're awake now," I say. I look at the ground.
"What is it, Celes?" he asks, and it is a good question.
"When Terra… she looked like…" I trail off and glance up. I continue, "She almost looked like.. an esper…" I look up to see Edgar standing on the other side of the doorway. He motions for us to come into the main room of the small house we're in, so we follow him.
"We have to find Terra, of course," he says, "but if the Empire wants to take the esper, some people will have to stay in Narshe as our only line of defense." He looks at us.
"Well, I can't just sit around in Narshe protecting a city that may not need protecting. It's not for sure that anyone is going to come back – especially if the main person trying to invade is Kefka. His favorite pastime is being an unpredictable, insane pyromaniac." I look at them. "And if he does come back, chances are he comes alone and tries to burn you to death. In the cold, that won't work out so well." We stand there for a minute. "So who's coming with me, or would you rather I run around by myself? I could definitely do that if I had to." Cyan (the Doman) and Gau (the teenage boy) step backwards slightly. I look at the remaining three men: Locke, Edgar, and Sabin. "Right then. Let's go, shall we?"
We buy some things – we may as well, since there are so many monsters – and go on our way.
"She flew west," I say, looking at Edgar. "I don't suppose your people have decided to stop hiding underground like cowards?"
"Don't call them cowards," he replies, glaring at me and stepping forward, toward the horizon. "And yes, they have, my lady."
"Don't call me 'your lady' – unless you want a scar on your right cheek, too?" In the Empire, when he had visited the Southern Continent to ally himself with them, he had made the mistake of attempting to flirt with me. I had run my fingernail down his cheek, scratching it quite seriously. He had bled more dangerously than I thought, and I hadn't seen him since, but now he's here, I can see it scarred quite nicely.
He looks away and takes the lead.
We stab a monster or two, nothing special, and walk away to the castle before they have a chance to let out their last breath before disintegrating. Edgar walks down the stairs on the left from the door and says something to someone. Everyone who had been outside of the castle comes in somewhere or another, and we depart to the desert near Kohlingen. Locke says something and looks down slightly, but I pay him no mind.
We leave the castle to go to Kohlingen. The desert near the town is evidently smaller than the South Figaroan desert, but I suppose that as long as it's a desert, the size doesn't matter.
Time seems to pass more quickly than normal, and as soon as we reach Kohlingen, the bright full moon is rising. We pay for an inn, and honestly – although I will never tell anyone – I'm glad to fall asleep for once. My training taught me not to sleep unless absolutely necessary, and I had lost a lot of sleep running around killing people. I have not had a good life.
I wake up in the middle of the night for some reason. Maybe it's the fact that this is the place I had to attack twice when I was in Kefka's troops – why does he even have troops? He hasn't ever been a general. Maybe it's me not sleeping unless absolutely necessary. Maybe someone is going to attack again for some reason. No, why would they do that? They've already practically won. I look to the side for no particular reason and notice that Locke isn't in bed. There isn't a bar in this town, or I would just assume that's where he is, so I get up to look for him. I put on my steel-toed boots and go outside. I find him in a meadow in the middle of a small forest near the town. (Monsters inexplicably only come out during the day, unless they really want to kill you, instead of the normal "kill because they can.") He notices me and looks at me for a second, then looks away, kind of sadly.
"Why are you standing in the middle of a small forest in the middle of the night? That's allegedly a bad idea."
He looks at me. "This is just-" he hesitates.
"Just what?"
He looks away, toward the starry horizon. He does not answer my question.
"You may as well tell me now and save me the trouble of asking you over and over again, because you know I'm going to," I tell him, somewhat forcefully. Is this about the "her" from before?
He turns again and seems to be considering me. I think about asking him if he's getting tired of turning, but it seems inappropriate, so I don't. He apparently decides something, what, I don't know, but he walks up to me and lightly touches my wrist. I pull it away from him, but assume he wants me to follow him because he continues walking. He brings me to the inside of a house and down some stairs. There is a woman's body lying on a bed. An old man who looks and sounds insane jumps up to him.
"Locke! Hee hee, here's the love of your life! She'll be sleeping forever from my herbs, hee hee!" He is screaming in the middle of the night. Definitely insane.
Locke walks up to the body – corpse? – and looks down at her. "I couldn't save her…" Then he launches into a story.
"'Locke! What are we finding today?' I looked at her. 'You'll see soon, Rachel – you'll love it, actually!' I smiled at her. There was a bridge in front of us, but what could a bridge do? I walked onto the bridge, but it began to shake and split under me. 'WATCH OUT LOCKE!' Rachel had screamed at me and ran to push me off the bridge. It was already about to break, and in the one moment that we were both on it at once, it broke that much faster and she had fallen into the abyss. I screamed after her, 'RACHEL!' and jumped down after her. She was unconscious and seemed to have hit her head because it was bleeding, but I couldn't really do anything other than bring her back to her house – not this house – and wait for her to wake up. Her father was glaring at me the whole time, but he didn't make me leave for some reason. When she awoke, I discovered she had lost her memory, except of her father. Because her father was furious with me, and he wouldn't listen to my pleas of what I had meant to do, and Rachel didn't remember anything, she asked me to leave, and I obliged – I still loved her, you know. A year later, I discovered she had been killed in an Imperial attack, and the last thing she said was my name…" He looks at me and almost seems on the verge of tears.
"We should go back to the inn," I say. Before he starts crying, I think, but I don't say that. He leaves, and I follow him, but I hesitate and go back. I look down at her. This woman… I'd tell him, but I can't. But I killed her.
I had been in Kefka's troops back then. We had attempted, and failed, to raid Kohlingen – the people were being smart, and knew that Kefka uses fire, so they drenched everything in water. Kefka tried to burn it, but failed, obviously because everything was soaked, so he left. The next time, however, was five years ago, when I was thirteen years old. Kefka had brought his entire troop to the town, and the people who resisted or attempted to escape were all killed. It's not technically ruled by the Empire, because Kefka forgot that part somehow (he probably just wanted to kill people and leave). Anyway, there was a cave near the entrance that he didn't know about, but I found it, and a few people had tried to escape. Having no other choice, I was forced to kill at least most of them, at least, the people who couldn't leave completely unnoticed, and there were other people in there with me, so everyone escaping by way of that cave (as far as I know) died. It was just by chance that I had stabbed her. I had heard a faint "Locke," but I didn't look behind me and left the cave. After that, Kefka noticed that I specifically had killed her, and told Emperor Gestahl, who made me an Imperial general. I despise that day. Then I met Locke, five years later, and realized who this girl really was, and from what he said, even more. I can't tell him, because although I won't admit it, I can't just wander around by myself – I can't be alone.
I go back to the inn – maybe I can get some sleep after a long day and a long night. I stop outside the door and look at the stars. A faint purple glow from the far stretches of the galaxy is making them even more breathtaking than normal. I yawn, stretch, and really realize how tired I am, so I go inside and fall asleep on what seems to be the most comfortable bed in the world.